Random Thought I Think You’d Like #2

As a student, I’m still learning to be passionate about something while disagreeing with it

Silence Is A Perfect Sound

Shhh…..

Silence. In some cases, we strive in our efforts to push it out of the picture. But in others, we love it, are amused by it and find solace and comfort in it.

It’s morning. The sun just peek-a-booed into the sky. The tree leaves moved gracefully in the wind. The branch of a crooked coconut tree  was  somehow serving as an  eyebrow to the sun. The face of the earth was dipped in yellow. A yellow that smelled of novelty, hope, victory and simply colour. It was raining too. But the skies were clear. It always confused me when that happened.

There is a silence in my room. I shift inside my blankets to try and sleep some more but end up just lying there, my eyes squinting into the sunrise. The silence is loud. Outside  the window of my room, the signs of life are so evident, it’s loud. It’s waiting to enter the silence in my room and break it. Not that it is evil. The loudness outside is very beautiful, extremely calming too, ironically. But letting it in, would mean giving up the silence. I would be giving  up a  perspective of reality inside the boundaries of my room. One that I was starting to enjoy.

Silence seems to add an iridescent beauty to all movement. It does so by just existing in a world of inactivity. The only thing that let’s us know it’s there, is time. But when it takes over, it lets you know that it is not brining about a cessation to activity, but rather adding meaning to it. In other words, it is a pause. And I find that so beautiful. If you follow this blog, you would know how much I love playing the guitar. A good musician has to know when to let his instrument speak and when to keep it silent. I would spend hours and hours, honing my skill of knowing when to allow silence to take over.  When silence takes over in the middle of a song, it’s definitely not a cessation of activity. On the contrary, it feels incredibly similar to standing still while your heart is beating like it’s on a rollercoaster. It is according to me, the best example of inertia, but one on an abstract level. And that silence, I find to be an ephemeral display of amazing.

Almost everything I have has some kind of cartoon or doodle. If you look at my laptop, among all the crazy things I’ve drawn on it, you’ll see this:   Silence is a Perfect Sound.  And I hope that today, I have given the world, a muddled up, arcane reason why it’s there. And if you didn’t understand this post, don’t worry. I’m still learning how to put silence in the right places.

 

Freedom

 

Freedom.

It’s a word we all have our own idiosyncratic views about. It’s a well debated word too. The world we live in today, is in many ways, connected to what we perceive in this seven letter word. True freedom is what we all strive for in many ways. So, yeah, it is a very interesting topic, one of colossal significance.

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘freedom’?

Do you know what I think when I hear that word?

I picture myself being able to fly. I imagine that sheer energy that comes from being able to do something impossible. I imagine the joy at the prospect of something that limits me being stripped away. Yeah, we all can relate to that. What we see when we hear the word ‘freedom’ always has something to do with our limitations. And that’s no surprise. After all, freedom essentially means ‘being free’.

Freedom is something we all strive towards because we believe ultimate freedom will make us happy. But will it? Is our idea of ‘freedom’ a soup of fallacious ideas that has fooled our sagacity?

That’s what I was thinking of, a few days ago, when I looked out the window and saw a bird flapping it’s wings in pure natural majesty. If I asked that bird what picture comes to its mind when I say the word ‘freedom’, what would it say?

Would it talk about swimming in an ocean?

That’s something it can’t do, right?

Well anyways, it was a moment of epiphany for me.

The truth is that the value we give for what ounce of freedom we have, is in many ways based on our knowledge of our own limitations.

If you were born without any limitations, how in the world could you value freedom? The concept of freedom would not exist for you. It would be a joy you’ll never know. Not because you are not free, but because you do not know what a limitation means.

Why do we need true freedom if we can’t enjoy it?

I believe you feel true freedom, when you are limited but agree and see your limitations as a necessary part of your life, so much so, that you don’t want it to go away. This way, you are aware of what your limitation is, but you also accept it, making it a part of your freedom. When you start believing a limitation is not limiting you,  it no longer is a limitation. And I believe that is where we start enjoying true freedom

I believe we are blessed to be limited beings. For that is what helps us to enjoy what freedom we have.